The first month of spring came with so many changes that it put me in a difficult situation of having to go with only a few of them for this roundup. And it wasn’t easy to decide which ones were more important than the others.
That being said, welcome to the March 2016 edition of This Month in WordPress w/ CodeinWP, and get ready for some new written and unwritten rules and releases that will (more or less) influence the future of the WordPress community.
March 2016 in WordPress
The automatic review process came out as excellent news for the developers. Until now, the review of a theme usually took way too long. This change is supposed to reduce the amount of the manual work and make things a lot quicker.
The review team said that there are 13 requirements waiting to be soon automated. We’ll see how effective this ends up being in practice after the automation is officially applied.
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Frameworks will no longer be accepted into the official plugin repository. This is not actually a rule, but more like a request for the developers who intend to submit frameworks hereafter. Mika Epstein from the review team came with a simple explanation for this not-so-welcome change (at least from a developer’s point of view):
Another change in WordPress, this time regarding the accessibility coding standards, has recently been approved. Developers, pay attention before building new tools, as they need to meet the new conditions from now on!
What are the changes all about?
- HTML semantics.
- Color contrast.
- Keyboard accessibility.
- Images and icons.
- Labelling.
Are you a fan of both WordPress and Shopify? You’ll be pleased to learn that Shopify is now more easily integrated with WordPress through the new official plugin.
The new e-commerce plugin is free and comes bundled with three modern themes provided by Shopify. Now you can manage all your posts and pages from your WordPress dashboard. But, at the same time, you can use Shopify’s features for your online stores, such as payments, secure checkout, shipping and fulfilment, inventory, and taxes.
It seems like it’s going to be a big party in Vienna in a couple of months! All WordCamp tickets were sold out six months in advance and a new series of 400 was made available this month. Given this fact, the organizers found themselves in the situation of expanding the venue capacity by adding additional halls in near places that are one-minute away from the main location, Museumsplatz.
This has just become the largest WordCamp ever! Have you booked your ticket yet?
Great Articles From Around The Web
REST API is great, but would you say “no” to something more modern and easier? Mark Gavalda gives us a hint (and a push) to try seeing things beyond REST API. Because we may find better stuff around … such as GraphQL.
Write CSS in the Customizer with the Advanced CSS Editor Plugin
You can now write CSS for different device screen sizes in the Live Customizer and watch the changes in real time. How great does that sound? Advanced CSS Editor makes that possible for you.
How to Migrate WordPress to a Different Domain Name
Need to change your domain, but you’re not sure what is going to happen to your content? Here’s how to do it safely.
Are WordPress “lite” themes useful?
Many companies rely on the “lite” versions of their products to promote their brands and services. Want to know why a free theme is useful for a business? Here’s some good insight.
Popular A/B Testing Tools For WordPress
Find out which of your landing pages’ versions drive more clicks and actions. How? Using an A/B testing tool from this list.
Building a review site shouldn’t be too difficult when there are great articles that can teach you how to do it. This is one of them.
How WordPress Sites Get Hacked (And What to Do About It)
Have you ever asked yourself how and why people hack websites? And more important, why would anyone hack YOUR site? Here are some answers.
The Ultimate Guide to the WordPress functions.php File
As a developer who creates themes for WordPress, you should learn as much as you can about how and why a *certain* important file works. Or if it doesn’t, how to make it work. Here’s everything you need to know about the functions.php file.
20 Useful WordPress Calendar Plugins
If you own a site where calendars play an essential role, using a beautiful and modern solution will make your site look better and more engaging. These plugins will give you a helping hand.
11 Truly Useful Yet Unknown WordPress Features
So you’ve been working with WordPress for a while, but do you know of all these neat tricks?
WordPress Plugin Roundup – March 2016
Let’s end our roundup with another roundup. Here are some of the most interesting free WordPress plugins released in March 2016!
Hello Adelina Tuca ,
This is a great news about wordpress . I’m also a beginner . So feeling excellent to see such news . Like your post and appreciated . Thannk you so much for sharing this here .
You have done here new wordpress news it an excellent informative post , So thanks .
Thanks for including my post in your roundup. A lot of good stuff to go through here. I especially enjoyed WPBeginner’s post on making a niche review site.
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed reading us.